It is known that pneumatic systems are used for performing various functions in work vehicles such as agricultural equipment. Fans are commonly used for providing pressurized airflow(s) that perform such pneumatic functions. In agricultural equipment, airflow from fans can perform various conveyance functions, like entraining seeds, fertilizers, and/or other granular material for pneumatically conveying the granular material through an implement for delivery onto a field. These implementations include seeders, planters, and applicators such as floaters. Airflow from fans can also perform various product cleaning functions, like pneumatically separating or cleaning debris or MOG (material other than grain) from grain. These implementations include various harvesting implements, such as combines and cotton pickers. However, different implementations have different pneumatic power and/or other airflow characteristic requirements, output pressure, and flow rate.
Fan performance is rated by the fan's output pressure and flow rate, so fan ratings can be used to select a suitable fan for a particular implementation. The fan rating and, correspondingly, a fan's output pressure and flow rate are dependent on the geometry of the fan's various components. Known principles or Fan Laws provide that pressure output can be increased as a function of increased fan diameter or speed, and flow rate output can be increased as a function of increased fan width and/or diameter and/or speed. Primary components of a fan include an impeller and a housing, both of which would need to be scaled up to achieve a higher flow rate(s), if needed for a particular implementation.
However, fan housings can be complex, typically having scroll shapes that make them difficult and costly to manufacture. In efforts to reduce production costs and simplify the manufacturing processes, many industrial fan housings, such as those typically used in agricultural implements, are made by casting procedures, sometimes cast as multiple pieces or two halves. However, casting procedures require high capital investments in tooling and production facilities. The tooling required for casting industrial fans is not only expensive to initially make, but is not easily modified. Accordingly, industrial fans tend to be available in a somewhat limited variety of sizes, configurations, and fan performances. This can mean settling for compromises in fan performance(s), based on available configurations.